By Kathleen Willcox
Sales of non- and-lower alcoholic wine have been skyrocketing (purchases were up 27% year-over-year according to Nielsen NIQ’s most recent numbers from end of year in 2024) as sales of traditional wine have been going down (about 7% for the same time period).
Excellent, very welcome news. But. The issue with dealcoholized wine for many is the flavor of the resulting liquid. It’s wine in name, but not form. Jerome Eckert-Nathan, CEO of BevZero, is the first to admit that the initial no-alcohol wines on the market were fairly grim.
“No alcohol wine was started in Europe in earnest about five years ago, and the initial quality was low,” says Eckert-Nathan, adding that BevZero serves the entire alcoholic beverage market, not just wine. “Despite consumers’ interest and undeniable demand, the adoption rate was slow.”
Which is why BevZero’s pioneering role in developing better technology that not only produces higher quality wines, but also meets producers’ sustainability goals is such a game changer. The latest development, ClearAlc, has happened thanks to BevZero’s partnership with Tomsa Destil, a European engineering leader with more than 170 years of experience separating (at least some) alcohol from wine.
The patented, single-pass deep vacuum distillation process separates and preserves key aromatic fractions while gently reducing alcohol content down to 0.05% ABV, ensuring flavor integrity and flexibility. ClearAlc was also engineered for sustainability, optimizing heat pump designs, reducing energy consumption and lowering water usage.
With BevZero, Eckert-Nathan argues that creating low or no alcohol wine or other beverages no longer requires a compromise on aroma or flavor.
And again, he says: “What do consumers want? On that basis alone, the case for no and low-alcohol wine is compelling.”
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Kathleen Willcox
Kathleen Willcox writes about wine, food and culture from her home in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. She is keenly interested in sustainability issues, and the business of making ethical drinks and food. Her work appears regularly in Wine Searcher, Wine Enthusiast, Liquor.com and many other publications. Kathleen also co-authored a book called Hudson Valley Wine: A History of Taste & Terroir, which was published in 2017. Follow her wine explorations on Instagram at @kathleenwillcox
